CHAPTER 1 - Nationalism in Europe FRENCH REVOLUTION (HISTOR CLASS 10)CBSE

IMPORTANT CONCEPTS IN FRENCH REVOLUTION

1. What are the feature or belief of ‘Conservatism’?

Conservatives believed that established, traditional institutions of state and society – like the monarchy, the Church, social hierarchies, property and the family – should be preserved. Most conservatives, however, did not propose a return to the society of pre-revolutionary days. Rather, they realised, from the changes initiated by Napoleon, that modernisation could in fact strengthen traditional institutions like the monarchy. It could make state power more effective and strong. A modern army, an efficient bureaucracy, a dynamic economy, the abolition of feudalism and serfdom could strengthen the autocratic monarchies of Europe. 

2. what is liberalism?

Liberalism stood for representative Government through Parliament, and the Constitution. Liberalism stood for end of clerical privileges and end of autocracy since the French Revolution.In the economic sphere, liberalism stood for the freedom of markets and the abolition of state-imposed restrictions on the movement of goods and capital.

3. What are Jacobin clubs?
The radical wing of representatives in the National Convention, named for their secret meeting place in the Jacobin Club, in an abandoned Paris monastery. Led by Maximilien Robespierre, the Jacobins called for democratic solutions to France’s problems and spoke for the urban poor and French peasantry. The Jacobins took control of the convention, and France itself, from 1793 to 1794. As Robespierre became increasingly concerned with counter revolutionary threats, he instituted a brutal period of public executions known as the Reign Of Terror. Jacobin clubs propagated the ideas of French revolution.

4. Reign of terror.

A ten-month period of oppression and execution from late 1793 to mid-1794, organized by Maximilien Robespierre and the Committee Of Public Safety to suppress any potential enemies of the radical Revolution. The Reign of Terror ended with the fall of Robespierre, who was arrested and executed in July 1794. Robespierre’s execution ushered in the Thermidorian Reaction of 1794–1795 and the establishment of the Directory as the head of France’s executive government.

5. Versailles

The royal palace built by King Louis XIV a few miles outside of Paris. Known for its extraordinary splendor, extravagance, and immense size, Versailles was the home of the king, queen, and all members of the royal family, along with high government officials and select nobles. On October 5, 1789, a mob of angry and hungry French women marched on Versailles, bringing the royal family back to Paris to deal with the food shortage.

6. Clergy – Group of persons invested with special functions in the church. The clergy and the nobility, enjoyed certain privileges by birth. The most important of these was exemption from paying taxes to the state.

7. Tithe – A tax levied by the church, comprising one-tenth of the agricultural produce. Taille – Tax to be paid directly to the state

8. Manor – An estate consisting of the lord’s lands and his mansion.

9. Treason – Betrayal of one’s country or government.

TIME LINE OF FRENCH REVOLUTION

Some important dates

1774
Louis XVI becomes king of France, faces empty treasury and growing discontent within society of the Old Regime.
1789
Convocation of Estates General, Third Estate forms National Assembly, the Bastille is stormed, peasant revolts in the countryside.
1791
A constitution is framed to limit the powers of the king and to guarantee basic rights to all human beings.
1792-93
France becomes a republic, the king is beheaded.
Overthrow of the Jacobin republic, a Directory rules France.
1804
Napoleon becomes emperor of France, annexes large parts of Europe.
1815
Napoleon defeated at Waterloo.

PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN IN FRENCH REVOLUTION

From the very beginning women were active participants in the events which brought about so many important changes in French society. They hoped that their involvement would pressurise the revolutionary government to introduce measures to improve their lives. Most women of the third estate had to work for a living. They worked as seamstresses or laundresses, sold flowers, fruits and vegetables at the market, or were employed as domestic servants in the houses of prosperous people. Most women did not have access to education or job training. Only daughters of nobles or wealthier members of the third estate could study at a convent, after which their families arranged a marriage for them. Working women had also to care for their families, that is, cook, fetch water, queue up for bread and look after the children. Their wages were lower than those of men.

BOURNBON RESTORATION (1815-1830)

Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, the Bourbon Monarchy was restored in France. The brothers of the executed Louis XVI, namely Louis XVIII and Charles X, successively mounted the throne and instituted a conservative government aiming to restore the proprieties, if not all the institutions, of the Ancien Régime.

FRANCE AFTER 1830

The 1830 Revolution marked a shift from one constitutional monarchy, under the restored House of Bourbon, to another, the July Monarchy; the transition of power from the House of Bourbon to its cadet branch, the House of Orléans; and the replacement of the principle of hereditary right by that of popular sovereignty.

Louis Philippe I (1830-1848 )

Convinced that he would one day play a political role in France, Louis Philippe was only able to implement his plans after the fall of his cousins in July 1830, when the French Revolution brought him to the throne under the name of Louis Philippe I, King of the French.On 24 February 1848, during the February 1848 Revolution, King Louis Philippe abdicated in favour of his nine-year-old grandson, Philippe, comte de Paris.